I don't know about you, but I'm sick of rescuing princesses. And villages? They never stay un-pillaged! And don't even get me started on alien hordes…! I work and I slave, and what thanks do I get? End credits! Maybe, if I'm lucky, a scoreboard I can enter my name on for a whole ten minutes before someone better knocks it off. Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a little tired of the effort outweighing the reward. Fortunately for you and me, my friend, Bart Bonte knows that at the end of the day, sometimes the simplest rewards are the sweetest. And that's where Me and the Key comes in and tends to my fevered brow with a series of charming logic puzzles and one very simple goal.

Me and the Key is a series of mini-games that all have the same end — getting the titular key. That's right. There's no zombies, no spaceships, no power-ups. Just you and a slowly evolving set of puzzles designed to test your common sense, and your ability to think outside the box. Most of them can be completed in under a minute once you figure out what you should be doing, and for the most part all you have to do is point and click. It's impossible to really paint yourself into a corner, so you can feel free to experiment. Sometimes the solution is as simple as playing an old arcade classic, and sometimes you'll need to make a tree grow so you can harvest its luscious tangerines. Just like at my old job!

Analysis: Those of you looking for high-res graphics and orchestral soundtracks may find yourselves disappointed. Like its concept, Me and the Key's visuals are simple, incorporating bright, round graphics and adorable design. While this keeps the interface clean and easy to navigate, the endlessly repeating background tune isn't nearly as endearing. The bubble-gum-pop quality of the music is cute for the first five minutes, but you may find yourself thankful for the mute button before long.

But Me and the Key is a success where it sets out to be one. The puzzles, while frequently obscure at first glance, are often exceedingly easy once you figure out what you're intended to do. A few feature mild tests of your reflexes, but most are well-designed adventures in logic. Often when I thought I was stuck, I realised I was over-thinking the game and missing the more obvious solutions. It's like being put into an empty room and trying every elaborate scheme you can think of to escape, only to find the door was never locked at all. Only one or two puzzles had me honestly furrowing my brow and wishing for a walkthrough. Oh penguin, why do your eyes haunt me so?

Me and the Key saves your progress, so you can attack each of its bite-sized challenges on your own time. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, but it fits neatly into your lunch break… or the time between memos when your boss is out of the office. If you're looking for some quick, quirky satisfaction, do yourself a favour and pick up Bonte's newest title. A key may not seem like the greatest reward you could wish for, but the smug feeling you'll get at solving this series of abstract little puzzles will stay with you long after you close the browser.

I had no trouble with any of these up until 24 (which I eventually got after several tries) and 25 (which is just a pain. Going up to 50 I could see, 99 is just way too long, especially given the pace of everything else.)

I am so disappointed in Bart Bronte. Level 13 is absolutely impossible with this laptop mouse. This game went from fresh to trash in an instant when I figured out the level is literally impossible for me.

I gave up on Lvl 25, way too hard on a trackpad. I might have a go at it later with a mouse and see if that makes a difference.
The penguins/ducks are cute, the levels with them have made me smile... so far...

I managed to do the trick by ignoring the side pads. Just imagine hitting a pingpong ball between two pads, or like another breakout game where you have to keep the ball away from the walls with two pads.

I got it from the second time, fearing that the ball could bounce to my useless side pads!

I figured out I needed to touch the penguin and trace the orange path to the other penguin, but now I just have two penguins popped up and staring at me. If I click anywhere else, the penguins drop down, so how do I get the key?

Hold the left mouse button down once you get the key in view. With the left mouse button down, the rope won't move even if you take the cursor off the rope, so you can just go ahead and hold the button, move your cursor over the key, and do a quick double click to get it before it slips through your fingers.

Maze puzzles

Right click. Try and get everything on the left hand side first, and then position your cursor as far to the right of the path as you can without reseting the puzzle. Now right click. This should make a bridge using the command promp over to the right hand paths. You can now move off to the right using the command prompt instead of the paths which should make things a lot easier.

I did this using a real mouse, but I assume these things could make this game MUCH easier with a trackpad!

isn't too bad as long as you keep it as vertical as possible. If it's too far to the right/left, hit it the ball a little left/right of the middle to keep it from hitting the side paddles.

I'm glad I was finally able to do a whole game on my own, even one that others had trouble with. Makes me not feel so bad about not being able to beat ANY of the room escape games (yes, even the super easy ones where the jerk walkthru giver tells you to be ashamed if you need it).

I've now tried level 13 (second Breakout level) with both a trackpad and a standard mouse and I see no difference in how unpleasantly hard it is. Over and over again I finally break through the top layer of bricks only to lose the ball one or two bounces later and have to start all over again. Sure, I'm probably just terrible at Breakout, but it's very disappointing that it's impossible to advance without doing this over and over and over and over again. I like Bonte games for the interesting logic side of things, not for manual dexterity challenges. Infuriating!

I do wish the editors would stop leaving slightly snide comments about the use of trackpads to play games. This is, I think, the third one I've seen. Yes, we know, mice are better for playing computer games. And yes, it's not necessarily fair to blame the developer because a game is harder with a trackpad. (Having said that, I completed this game with a trackpad. Try adjusting your settings, Antikythera)

But really, "any computer game"? Sure, if you're talking about Team Fortress 2, or Counterstrike, or Doom, or Portal, or any other serious game then yes, you'd be bonkers to play it with a trackpad. But the vast majority of casual games do not in fact require a real mouse. I should know - I've been perusing this site for a couple of years now and in that time I have only had a trackpad. Very few casual flash games are impossible with a trackpad, and quite right too.

The ones that are almost never have the courtesy to mention it at the beginning of the game, meaning that you get halfway through and realise that you're going to have to go and dig the mouse out to continue. And most of the time, casual games being what they are, it's not worth it. So I think it is a valid criticism to say that in a puzzle game like this one (or, heaven preserve us, Kagi Nochi Tobira, level 17) it rather ruins the experience to get to a point and realise the reason you can't continue is not because your brain is not up to it, but because your hardware isn't. I don't think developers should go out of their way to accommodate trackpad users, but equally it's a fair criticism of a game to say "this mouse reflex test ruined the experience for me."

Xixen - I agree Pam's comment could have been worded better than it was, but I do support the point she was trying to make.

It's been a pet peeve of mine over the years maintaining this site to read complaints from people trying to use an interface device for which a game was not designed.

Trackpads are a device of convenience used in laptops to support their portability.

If trackpads were a superior input device to a mouse, you would see desktop users ditching their mouse for a trackpad. This just doesn't happen.

While I feel it is fair criticism for someone to say "this mouse reflex test ruined the experience for me," I feel it is unfair to the developer to say "this game is poorly designed because I can't play it on a trackpad."

I agree that the reflex levels seem out of place in a game that otherwise encourages logic for success. I think part of the trouble with the second breakout trouble is how short the screen is in comparison to the first, which makes it harder to intercept the ball. If you had more time to see the ball coming towards you, you'd have an easier time moving to get it, even with a track-pad. But coulda woulda shoulda, right?

I'm glad a lot of people seem to be enjoying this game regardless, and to the rest of you I apologise for not considering the limitations of a laptop when I wrote this review and mentioning it. I don't have a laptop myself, so it never occurred to me, and I'll keep it in mind for the future so nobody else winds up frustrated. I hope this doesn't discourage you from trying any other game Mr Bonte makes in the future. You can't please all of the people all of the time, but for a game that wasn't developed specifically for the laptop as a platform, I still think Me and the Key is one of the more accessible games out there.

Trackpad aside (on a MacBook Air where frankly, the trackpad does better work than the mouse at this point at least from experience), I managed the game well enough.

Found the second level of breakout relatively easy, managing it on my third try. The last level, with the ball, I admit was an evil, evil level but after quite a few tries (lost count, who really does care though?) I managed to hit the 'magic' spot and just moved my hand away, watching the ball do its job without my help.

Overall, good game, as I have come to expect of Bonte games, and will play it again, on the other laptop tonight, with the use of the proper, good mouse and see if it's really any different.

Thanks for your response Jay, and I do agree that people shouldn't rail against developers for not making things trackpad accessible. Nor do I think that a trackpad is in anyway a superior input device to a mouse. As it happens, I have a macbook with a very good, very sensitive trackpad, which is why I don't find it hard to play most casual games with it. I understand how annoying it must be to have people complaining because they failed to read what was needed to play the game; I'm not sure that this is an example of that, as it's not generally a problem to play games like this with a trackpad, and there was nothing in the review to suggest it would be an issue. Antikythera's comment wasn't very well expressed, but I just felt the response was unnecessarily snide given the circumstances.

I'm sorry if my comment came across as rude or as suggesting that developers should aim their games towards trackpad users. The wording of Pam's comment just rubbed me rather the wrong way, especially as it was put in as an mod comment rather than a normal reply. A good mouse is a massively superior input device for gaming with, but a good trackpad is perfectly acceptable for a lot of casual gaming, and I resented the implication that trying to use my standard input device made me an idiot. I guess I got a little carried away in my response, probably took it a little too personally! If I caused any offence, I apologise for that.

On a more positive note, I don't think I've ever mentioned that this site is probably the best I've come across for finding good, well made casual games for a range of ability levels. Generally speaking, your contributors are very good about mentioning accessibility issues, and I didn't intend to attack Dora in any way for what was a good review of a fun little game.

P.S. I've been having a few problems with the Captchas on this site recently. I always have to refresh the page to enter it, because the first one never seems to work, even when it's definitely correctly entered. Is this a problem at my end, do you think?

Pure cute puzzles brought right down to their base form: the point isn't on what the key opens, but the trickiness of getting to the key itself. Doors? Who need's 'em?

Yeah, I have a hard time doing minutely exact or reflex-based things with a trackpad, but usually timed tricks with precision cursory tends to detract from the usual pointy-clickety experience. I did have a mouse, and levels 8 and 9 had such short windows of opportunity that they were less about figuring things out and more about waiting to click on- ugh, more waiting.

Still, the cuteness and catchy music just about made up for it. The pause feature's helpful too, so you can leave and return if you get frustrated on one part (or are writing about it in between levels)

Xixen, clear your mind, as I never took it as an attack at all. :) I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to voice your opinion here, and thank you for doing so in such a well thought-out manner.

Incidentally, if you ever come across a game that was ever made specifically FOR a trackpad, please submit it for review! It would be interesting to see what the differences are, and if us mouse-users would be rendered impotent by it.

I love fun little games that aren't too hard, but still pose a little bit of a challenge. I used a tablet except for the last level, so I didn't have any problems with dexterity puzzles at all. The only issue I had was that the .swf was initially blocked by my ad-block, but everything else was fine! I especially liked the idea with the tree and those clickable bouncing balls.

Number 25 is extremely frustrating, and I lose my temper easily, which ruined this game for me. I had 2 hits left, and it went offscreen. I just lost my respect and patience for this game. Was going to give it a 5 out of 5, but because of that level, its down to a 2.

I thought level 25 was really cheap, to be honest. (I was going to say it was a [blank] move, but this site is suitable for family viewing, right?) The game is advertised as an abstract puzzler on here, and really that's what Bonte is known for, so to have the ultimate level be an endurance test of BREAKOUT? That's ridiculous. It's not even a FUN version of Breakout. The paddles are tiny and twitchy, it's not any fun to look at, and the whole thing is tedious and frustrating.

The only reason I stuck it out is because Bonte usually has really cute and clever credits at the end of his games, such as Factory Balls. So when I finally, FINALLY, beat level 25, I was so happy to see Bonte's cute credits. AND THERE WEREN'T ANY.

I gave this one 1/5 because I was really that irritated and disappointed by the whole deal. It completely wiped out all the amusement I had gotten from the earlier levels and left me much more tense and frustrated than I had been before I started playing the game to relax.

I really like Bonte's games in general and will support his future endeavours, but this seemed like a bait-and-switch, and more importantly, it just was not fun for me.

Nice little game, but I have to agree that the Breakout/Arkanoid levels were ridiculous. I mean, seriously? Breakout? Why? He didn't come up with it, he didn't reinvent it, he didn't improve it or comment on it or twist it in any way. Just a straight-up little rip-off of another game inside his own game.

I really love Bonte games. Love 'em. That's why it pains me to give this a thumbs-down. Level 25 ruined it. I completed it because like some other folks, I found a sweet spot by luck. Otherwise, I wouldn't have finished the game.
I said it before and I'll say it again: Reflex games have many fans. But such devices do not belong in a game of this genre. I really feel it's cheap and lazy to resort to hand-eye coordination. It's as if the designer ran out of ideas.
A little is okay, but to make the player sustain it for a long time, like Level 25 here and the first Kagi Nochi Tobira, is just wrong.
That said, I still can't wait for Bonte's next release. While this was a bump in the road, they are normally terrific games.

Some of the levels were a bit tougher than expected. Yes I'm using a trackpad, yes I read the other comments. But I must say, I'm pretty darn good with a trackpad, so if I'm having trouble with a trackpad then I'm pretty sure that other people could run into trouble with the mouse.

It would be nice if the breakout levels didn't reset the whole level when you mess up. Feels like it slows down the pace of the game a bit.

I, for one, do NOT think this is a puzzle game. for the first 5 levels or so, it's actually puzzling, then it's barely puzzling at all, and after that it just goes into absurd tests of skill. I'm sorry, but this game just did NOT cut it. I'd rate this about 1/5.

Um... I can't be the only one who is finding level 17 absolutely impossible? No matter what I do, I can't get them all lit before two of them crash into each other, they move too fast. Even with a mouse, I can't get it.

Sadly, I'm still on level 13. My frustration with my own inability is one reason why I'm saying this though I still believe it true: This level is neither innovative nor entertaining. Still, bg music helps..a little bit.

25 is easy. There is a spot where u can leave the mouse and the ball continues to bounce without touching the sides. Place the bottom square on the third stripe and the right square a bit above the middle. Then feel free too relax :D

Level 25: If you line your vertical paddles on ~ 2nd stripe on the left, then when you release the ball, it will rebound off the horizontal paddles straight onto the sweet spot where it goes back and forth : ) well, at least it did for me...

But more frustrating for me was level 22, with the tv penguins... I don't want to blame my trackpad, it's just my reflexes that make that level actually impossible.

I look for point-and-click games to be the ones that aren't reflex-based, and yet in what would have been otherwise a great and entertaining game, I can't get past a level because I don't click fast enough. Ugh.

Definitely not a great Bonte title. The puzzles are frustrating and tedious to complete once you've figured them out. There is also a good deal of screen lag, a real killer on some of the timing puzzles. I couldn't take it anymore once I saw the second Arkanoid level. His other games are much better, this one was a real dud.

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